UNC Chapel Hill / Water / Sanitation / Where Science Meets Policy Conference

Those of you who were at UNC's conference last October know that you don't want to miss the 2011 show either. Fantastic learning opportunity. Here is a hint at what this year's event includes:
__
Networking/Workshop Events 2011 Water and Health: Where Science Meets Policy Conference

Workshops and meetings are already being organized for the 2011 Water and Health Conference, to be held October 3-7 at UNC Chapel Hill. Our first workshops to announce are:

• "The United Nations, Global Health Policy, and Evolving Frameworks for Accountability under the Human Right to Water" co-convened by The Parr Center for Ethics at UNC

• Annual Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage (HWTS) Network Meeting convened by WHO, UNICEF & The Water Institute

• "The new age of rapid methods for water quality applications: blending scientific advancement with routine monitoring needs" convened by the Institute of Marine Sciences at UNC

Don't miss this opportunity to network with and learn from the unique array of national and international experts to build and sustain a capable and proficient knowledge base in a new topic, and to expand upon existing knowledge and skills. http://whconference.unc.edu/networking.cfm

Global Handwashing Day 2010

Zoinks! Each year Global Handwashing Day gets bigger and better.  From our friend Dan Campbell at USAID, here are the big ticket items for tomorrow, October 15. WASH your HANDS people! I don't care if you're trying to prevent diarrheal disease or avian influenza. Handwashing is medicine!


{{Since I posted this, I heard from ProjectWET.org - they have a great handwashing poster for free download here:  http://store.projectwet.org/index.php/maps-posters/wash-your-hands-poster.html}}


2 key websites are:

• Global Handwashing Day 2010 - http://www.globalhandwashingday.org/

• Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing with Soap - http://www.globalhandwashing.org/

Handwashing in the News

- USAID - Millions Soap Up to Commemorate Global Handwashing Day
http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/global_health/eh/news/ghwd10.html

- U.S State Dept - Raising Clean Hands: How WASH Is Essential for Achieving Universal Education, a presentation by Maria Otero, Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs http://www.state.gov/g/149358.htm  

- UNICEF - Making clean hands a priority for more than just a day, Global Handwashing Day
http://www.unicef.org/media/media_56528.html
- Save the Children Asks: Do You Know Your Dirty Words? - http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/10/prweb4633754.htm, ‎Oct 11, 2010‎, The videos also mark Global Handwashing Day on October 15. The installation of toilets, hand-washing stations, hand pumps and de-worming campaigns are part ...

- BBC News - UK: Dirty toilets and thugs stop children washing hands - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11540274

- Lifebuoy to target 100000 children to support 3rd annual Global Handwashing - http://www.ameinfo.com/245201.html The 3rd annual Global Handwashing Day (GHWD) will be celebrated across the Gulf on October 15th 2010. The initiative, backed by the Global Public-Private ...

- Ghana: Global Handwashing Day http://gbcghana.com/index.php?id=1.149009, ‎Oct 11, 2010‎, In Ghana, the third National Handwashing Day will be held at the Volta Regional Capital, Ho. In 2008, the United Nations General Assembly set aside the day ...

- Soap Project, MedShare Form Partnership http://www.globalatlanta.com/article/24279/, Oct 12, 2010, Two Atlanta-based nonprofits, the Global Soap Project and MedShare, have formed a partnership to distribute recycled soap from US hotel rooms to countries ...

- Afghanistan: No soap at school http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=90759

- India: Health in your hands http://expressbuzz.com/cities/bangalore/health-in-your-hands/214762.html, ‎Oct 12, 2010, The focus of this year's Global Handwashing Day is cleanliness at schools. Playgrounds, classrooms, community centres, and public spaces will be awash with ...

- Philippines - Global handwashing day on October 15 promotes lathering up to beat diseases
http://www.pia.gov.ph/?m=12&r=&y=&mo=&fi=p101013.htm&no=08, ‎Oct 12, 2010‎, The purpose of Global handwashing day is to raise awareness and promote hand washing to school children's and parents. Each year, diarrheal diseases and ...

- Kenya - Wash your hands well before touching cutlery
http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Wash%20your%20hands%20well%20before%20touching%20cutlery/-/539444/1031332/-/jakx5xz/-/, ‎Oct 12, 2010‎, As the world prepares to mark the Global Handwashing Day, public health experts are raising ...

- Guinness World Records® Attempt for Most People Sanitizing Hands a Success http://www.kansascity.com/2010/10/08/2290153/guinness-world-records-attempt.html, ‎Oct 8, 2010, The world record was carried out in celebration of the upcoming Global Handwashing Day, an annual event that coincides with flu season. ...

Let's Keep It Going For Pakistan

Some ideas on where we all can continue to help in Pakistan, from the Ansara Family Fund in Boston are below. For a great list see Interaction's site here.

From Ansara:

These recommendations have been culled from multiple sources including The Acumen Fund, Associated Grantmakers of Massachusetts, The Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta, The Council on Foundations, Grassroots International, GuideStar, Hunt Alternatives Fund, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Jonathan Lewis at Opportunity Collaboration, The Philanthropic Initiative, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, U.S. State Department, other sites and personal interviews. Rapid research was provided by New Philanthropy Advisors. All organizations have been recommended by respected funders and have US 501c3 tax-deductible status or a US 501c3 vehicle for giving.

Suggested Organizations:

ACT Alliance - Coordinating the funding and efforts of over 100 Christian denominations and organizations worldwide, the ACT Alliance works in 130 countries for positive and sustainable change in the lives of people affected by poverty and injustice. Conducting humanitarian, development and advocacy work, ACT "works with and for people of all faiths and none." In response to the Pakistan floods, ACT has issued a $1.6 million appeal. ACT is funded by donations made to its member organizations, including Church World Service, a leading ACT member in Pakistan. Donate to Church World Service

Action Aid - Action Aid works with national and international alliances, as well as with local partners worldwide to fight for and gain their rights to food, shelter, work, education, healthcare and a voice in the decisions that affect their lives. In the provinces of KPK, Punjab, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Action Aid's partners have reached over 20,000 with evacuation assistance, food and hygiene packages and medical services. Donate to Action Aid

American Jewish World Service - Known as a "progressive" organization and motivated by Judaism's imperative to pursue justice, AJWS is dedicated to alleviating poverty, hunger and disease among the people of the developing world regardless of race, religion or nationality. Through grants to grassroots organizations, AJWS fosters civil society, sustainable development and human rights for all people. AJWS makes grants to partner organizations in Pakistan that are erecting temporary shelters, facilitating access to clean drinking water in government relief camps, and working with local and national government authorities to expedite the relief process. AJWS has funded in Pakistan since the earthquakes in 2005 with a special focus on women and youth. Donate to AJWS

CARE - CARE is supporting health teams, mobile clinics and the distribution of emergency supplies, having already treated more than 32,000 people, including those affected by cholera and other potentially fatal diseases. CARE has established camps and shelter including tents, plastic floor mats, mosquito nets and kitchen kits. Recognizing that women and children suffer disproportionately from poverty, women are at the heart of CARE's community-based efforts to promote self-sufficiency, improve basic education, prevent the spread of HIV, increase access to clean water and sanitation, expand economic opportunity and protect natural resources. Donate to CARE

The Citizens Foundation - a Pakistani-based organization with US chapters, which runs 660 schools in the poorest urban and rural areas of the country, TCF is using its schools as distribution centers to distribute 100,000 relief packages that will each feed a family of six for one-month for just $30 each. With schools that boast 50% female enrollment, TCF is committed to eradicating illiteracy and extremism through education. Additional funds will support the repair and rebuilding of schools. Vetted by The Acumen Fund. Donate to TCFUSA

Developments in Literacy, is rooted in Garden Grove, California with strong leadership from Pakistani Americans, and has established 150 schools, primarily for girls. Partnering with other local organizations, DIL aims to distribute $100 worth of dry food rations to 2,000 families in six districts. With another partner group, DIL is providing shoes, clothing, hygiene kits and mosquito nets. Endorsed by the wife of the Ambassador at Large from Pakistan. Donate to DIL

International Rescue Committee - With 30 years experience working in Pakistan, and a robust network of local staff and partner organizations, IRC is providing shelter, clean water, sanitation and hygiene, and essential supplies to those who been displaced by floods. Immediate program assistance for flood affected areas will focus on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), non-food item distributions and shelter. IRC is providing shelter, clean water, sanitation, and essential supplies to those who have fled the rising waters. Donate to IRC

Mercy Corps specializes in alleviating suffering, poverty and oppression in 40 countries where governments are weak and disaster or conflict has struck. Working in Pakistan since 1986 with 90% Pakistani staff, Mercy Corps is working to provide clean water, staple foods and clean-up tools to families in the Swat Valley and in northern Sindh Province. Long-term reconstruction will be jump-started by a grant from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assistance to repair water and irrigation systems, distribute cash vouchers and operate cash-for-work programs. Donate to Mercy Corps

Naya Jeevan is a Pakistani-based nonprofit social enterprise (with US 501c3 status) providing low-income families with affordable quality, catastrophic health insurance. In addition Naya Jeevan is improving family health through health education and reducing infant/child and maternal mortality within low-income populations residing in urban areas of developing countries. In the midst of the flood, Naya Jeevan is transporting the sick and injured to health care providers, mapping the availability of emergency health services, and delivering medicines to the sick and stranded. Vetted by Draper Richards Foundation and Jonathan Lewis, Opportunity Collaborative. Donate to Naya Jeevan

Oxfam - Oxfam and its on-the-ground partner organizations, which advocate for long-term solutions to poverty that protect human rights, have launched a rapid-relief effort to quickly reach 400,000 people in hard-hit areas of Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Oxfam is providing evacuation, clean water, latrines and hygiene, hot meals and food vouchers to purchase from local traders, and cash-for-work opportunities. Known for its expertise in agricultural development, Oxfam will help people keep their remaining livestock in good health via vaccinations and deworming, and will revitalize farming and grazing in the vast territories that have been destroyed. Donate to Oxfam

Rural Support Programmes Network via The Friends of Pakistan Fund, Inc. -- a national, Pakistani umbrella and the largest non-government network of rural development programs in the country, RSPN mobilizes rural women and men around relief and rehabilitation, micro credit and health insurance, learning employable skills, and strengthening agriculture, livestock, and small enterprise in 105 of the country's 138 districts. Vetted by the Acumen Fund, UNICEF, USAID and other donors. Donate to RSPN

Save the Children, called the largest U.S.-based NGO in Pakistan with a presence for 30 years, Save the Children has partnered with the World Food Program to provide emergency food rations to 400,000 children with a goal of 2 million. Save the Children's highest priority for the coming weeks is to rush food, water, shelter materials, medical care and other essentials to affected communities to save children's lives. The organization will address children's longer-term needs with shelter, health, nutrition, education, child protection, and support to families to regain incomes and farming capacity. Donate to Save the Children

The U.S. Fund for UNICEF - UNICEF, a presence in Pakistan since the country's inception, is supported by 36 national committees and works in over 150 countries. UNICEF has received US Government funding to prevent waterborne diseases by providing safe drinking water in for 360,000 in KPk, Sindh, Baluchistan, and Punjab provinces. UNICEF has set up nine medical camps providing medicine, water treatment tablets, nutritional supplements, hygiene kits and jerry cans. Beyond playing a leading role in coordinating NGOS providing water and sanitation, education and nutrition, UNICEF is known for its work to protect children from exploitation and trafficking during emergencies and conflicts. Donate to the US Fund for UNICEF

High Level Meeting / Press briefing TODAY April 21, Washington DC

MEDIA ADVISORY

EMBARGOED: WEDNESDAY, 21 APRIL 2010, 3:30 P.M. EST

For billions still living without access to sanitation and water the cost of inaction is too high

WHAT?

Press briefing to:

(i) Launch of the UN-Water Global Annual Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS), which centralizes key information/data, highlights challenges and elucidates where efforts stagnate for achieving the water and sanitation Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets.

(ii) Pre-meeting briefing: First annual High Level Meeting of Sanitation and Water for All, to be held on 23 April, to take stock of progress, decide how to increase the performance and effectiveness of the sector, and increase understanding of how investment in sanitation and water leads to greater economic and human development.

WHO?

Minister:
Mr. Bai-Mass Taal, Executive Secretary of the African Ministers' Council on Water (AMCOW)

World Health Organization:
Dr Maria Neira, Director for the Department of Public Health and Environment

UNICEF:
Clarissa Brocklehurst, Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

Civil Society:
Mr. Yakub Hossein, Freshwater Action Network South Asia (FANSA)

Donor representative:
Mr. Dick van Ginhoven, Sr. Water and Sanitation Advisor, The Netherlands

WHERE?

Ronald Reagan Building: The Hemisphere Room, Washington D.C.

WHEN?

Wednesday, 21 April 2010, 3:30 – 5:00 p.m. EST

For a copy of the embargoed report and password see link below below. Please note the report is on a protected FTP site and under embargo until Wednesday 21 April 2010, 03:30 pm EST:

WHO link: ftp://ftp.who.int/HSE/UN-Water%20GLAAS/

Password: ThroughtheGLAAS

For further information, please contact:

Geneva: Ms Nada Osseiran, Communications Officer, Public Health and Environment, WHO, Geneva, Tel. + 4122 7914475, Mobile +4179 445 1624, Email: osseirann@who.int;

Washington: Ms Donna Eberwine-Villagrán, Media relations, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), Tel. + 1 202 974 3122, Email: eberwind@paho.org.

New York: Ms Saira Khan, UNICEF Media, New York, Tel: + 1 212 326 7224, Email:sskhan@unicef.org

Washington: Mr Christopher Walsh, Communications Officer, Water and Sanitation Program,

Tel: + 1 202 473 4594, Email, cwalsh@worldbank.org

For media materials and info please visit:

http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/glaas
http://www.unicef.org/
http://www.unwater.org/activities_san4all.html

World Humanitarian Day

Happy World Humanitarian Day!

From the United Nations media advisory:

Established by the General Assembly of the United Nations, 19 August 2009 is the first World Humanitarian Day. The designation of the Day is a way to increase public understanding of humanitarian assistance activities worldwide. The Day also aims to honour humanitarian workers who have lost their lives or been injured in the course of their work.

Why 19 August? - Six years ago, on 19 August 2003, the United Nations office in Iraq was bombed and 22 people lost their lives. Among them was Sergio Vieira de Mello, at that time the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General to Iraq. While there have been many other fatal incidents involving humanitarian personnel the General Assembly decided to use the anniversary of this incident as World Humanitarian Day.

So a quick shout out to some of our favorite humanitarians:

Clarissa Brocklehurst of UNICEF's Water and Environmental Sanitation program.

Chris Williams of UN Habitat.

Jamie Bartram, formerly of the World Health Organization, now at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health.

Lots more where these came from, but let's start here and get the festivities rolling.

WASH in Schools - UNICEF at World Water Week

It's a busy time for global water and sanitation challenges at the World Water Week in Stockholm.

Of note: UNICEF is using its time there to promote part of its approach to the challenge, which they call WASH in Schools - Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Education in Schools.

If you are at all unsure about the impact that safe drinking water and single gender sanitation can have on schools, please watch a brief video that UNICEF has produced here.

And more on UNICEF's website:

http://www.unicef.org/wash/index_50832.html

And more from Water Advocates here.

I have been saying for a long time that the only thing that can compete with safe drinking water and sanitation on the hierarchy of development needs is girls' education. UNICEF's work with WASH in Schools pulls it all together nicely.

International Year of Poo

Hooleintelligence has it right - I have been delayed in my posting due to my being a little too excited about the upcoming International Year of Sanitation. I'm not so sure that getting all worked up about another UN Year for something is advisable, but at least I am not alone:

World Toilet Association General Assembly - tickets still available. Seriously. Go. (Seoul, Nov. 21 - 25)

'Mr. Toilet' builds commode-shaped house

World Toilet Summit in Delhi - Check out my friend Dave Praeger's updates from the World Toilet Summit here. Poop humor just never gets old.

So how can we determine whether we are making progress with the global sanitation challenge? How about when news about sanitation shows up in mainstream media and not in the "Offbeat News" or "News of the Absurd."

And now the underlying harsh reality of this post: what kills and sickens more people, water or inadequate sanitation? A recent UNICEF report answers that clearly:

Reduction in diarrhoeal diseases morbidity resulting from improvements in drinking water and sanitation services:

• 25% from improved drinking water
• 32% from improved sanitation
• 45% from improved hygiene (viz. handwashing)
• 39% from household water treatment

Yes, we need all three. But we need an invigorated response to the global sanitation challenge. But Blogging on Sanitation.blogspot.com doesn't have the cachet that toilets deserve.

Clinton Global Initiative Part 1: Water, water, nowhere

Sorry for the gap in posts – have been on the road a lot lately, including a couple of very interesting visits to water development groups in Guatemala – check out Agua del Pueblo here or google them to find out more about their work for those of you interested in Guatemala. They are primarily funded by a bilateral relationship with the Spanish government now, but looking to diversify and expand their work with water, sanitation and hygiene promotion.

I’m blogging today from right in the middle of the 2007 Clinton Global Initiative, waiting patiently for a direct mention of water, sanitation, hygiene, diarrhea, cholera, or anything… Throw me a bone people! There has been a great deal of optimistic, inspiring discussion in the plenary and breakouts so far from 52+ current and former heads of state and probably 1000 other people, representing 600+ commitments, tens of millions of lives impacted or saved, in over 100 countries.

Five significant commitments have been made public so far, the most interesting of which is the “Global Campaign to Reduce Maternal and Child Deaths in Poor Countries” launched by Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg with others.

Finally, a discussion early this afternoon in the Global Health session about Prime Minister Stoltenberg’s commitment elicited an interesting remark from CARE’s President and CEO Helene Gayle. She suggested that in order to meet the goals laid out by the Prime Minister, it is necessary to take a broader approach to child and maternal health, and focus on the causes of that mortality and morbidity – and she mentioned safe water and sanitation specifically.

More to come.

PS Off to question Jane Goodall about the nexus of biodiversity conservation (viz. great apes) and homo sapiens need for safe drinking water. See earlier related post here.

PPS Best quote ever: Development is about much more than safe water, but never about less.

None of My Business

Typically, I try always to be open-minded - to walk a mile in the other guy’s shoes, even if it is just to be a mile away and have his shoes when the deal goes sour. However, there are some things to which I cannot possibly relate, and even trying to gets me in trouble. One of those things is the female menstrual cycle.

So I find myself today getting caught up on some reading, in particular a NY Times article from December 23, 2005 entitled “Another School Barrier for African Girls: No Toilet.” I made it about three sentences into the article when this phrase caught my eye: “the realities of menstruation in a school with no latrine, no water, no hope of privacy other than the shadow of a bush, and no girlfriends with whom to commiserate.”

I quickly stopped my halfhearted attempt to relate to this, and am now working on the more simple reality that this is a bad thing and needs fixing.

So… Although the article’s protagonist (Fatimah Bamun, pictured above) is in Ethiopia, this is a reality which unfortunately is not isolated to Ethiopia or even Africa. Fifty percent of the world’s schools do not have access to safe water and single-gender sanitation facilities, and those parts of the world with such luxuries are in the fortunate position of not having to relate to this reality.

In Guinea, enrollment rates for girls from 1997 to 2002 jumped 17 percent after improvements in school sanitation, according to a recent Unicef report. The dropout rate among girls fell by an even bigger percentage.

This post is not about water – it can’t be. This post is about water as a direct conduit to additional educational opportunities for girls, and as a less direct but perhaps more compelling conduit to corresponding increases in economic development and decreases of fecundity rates.

Water and sanitation are statistically validated as significant contributors to education, whether it’s the Education Millennium Development Goal or any other success metric. A recent WaterAid report quantifies the impact of safe water and sanitation on not just the quantity of education, but also on the:

• quality of education - children suffering from diarrhea or thirst (or holding back until nightfall to urinate) cannot concentrate on their lessons, and


• teachers - particularly female teachers who often suffer the same consequences as do their pupils. It is very difficult to recruit and retain qualified teachers where the schools don’t have water and sanitation.

I’d also suggest a quick glance at least at the summary of the Proceedings of the 2005 Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Education for Schools Roundtable Meeting which begins with this quote from former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan:

Water is intimately linked with education and gender equality. Girls who have to spend time gathering water for the family tend not to be in school. And where schools have sanitation, attendance is higher, especially for girls. Water is connected to health, since millions of children get sick and die every year from water-borne diseases and for lack of basic sanitation and hygiene.

I’m not asking readers to relate to this gruesome reality, or even to solve the world’s water problem. More pragmatically I am asking you to consider what it would take to catalyze a situation whereby each of the world’s schools achieves safe, affordable and sustainable access to safe drinking water and single sex sanitation facilities? How many schools are there, how many suffer from these shortages, and what would it take for every government in the developing world to meet its responsibility and fill that gap? Last and least, what could the international donor community do to jumpstart this sort of commitment to life and livelihood?

For example, there are 54,000 schools in South Africa. If 50% of those do not yet have water and sanitation that defines our universe as 27,000 schools. At a conservative (on the high side) $20,000 a pop for water, sanitation and hygiene promotion, that’s $540m. Couldn’t the international donor community come up with $54m to goose the GoSA to make that commitment? Then wouldn’t the governments of Zambia, Mozambique, Botswana and Namibia be embarrassed…

Vote Early Vote Often

Get warmed up for November 4, 2008 by voting at:

American Express - Members Project

I suggest Children's Safe Drinking Water. It's a point-of-use water purification system from UNICEF et al.